


Fragile

by BardofHeartDive



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, Falling In Love, Friends to Lovers, Pre-Stream (Critical Role), spoilers for campaign 1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-02 02:39:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17256071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BardofHeartDive/pseuds/BardofHeartDive
Summary: Kima has never loved anything fragile.





	Fragile

**Author's Note:**

  * For [elleskinner](https://archiveofourown.org/users/elleskinner/gifts).



> I'm so excited that I got to participate in this exchange and post my first Critical Role fic. Many many thanks to my lovely beta [Thunderthighs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thunderthighs) for all their help and especially on such short notice.

When Kima was nine a representative on the margrave’s office came to the house for dinner and her mother got out the good china. It was white with a pattern of green vines outlined with silver, completely different than the wooden plates they normally used. She set a place for their guest, her father, and herself, then asked Kima which she wanted.

“You can use this one if you want,” her mother said, holding a plate out to her. “But you will need to be very careful. It’s fragile; if you drop it or hit it too hard it will break.”

She eyed the plate. Even at nine, she could see the fine detailing, down to the buds on the vines and the veins in the leaves. The silver outline reflected the light, making the colors seem deeper and more vibrant. She brushed her fingers on the edges gingerly. It was smooth and glassy and terribly, terribly delicate. She shook her head and retrieved her usual dishes from the cupboard.

That was the moment Kima knew she would never love anything fragile.

 

* * *

 

Kima knew that Ghenn hadn’t planned to take her with him. The dragonborn warrior was heading into the Umber Hills to drive back a clan of goblins that had been raiding the nearby towns and had come for the Platinum Dragon’s blessing before leaving. In addition to an anointing and a prayer, Kima decided to bless him by going with him too.

Besides Ghenn, there were four others: Sirus, a human barbarian with an elaborate wolf tattoo on his back, Dohla, a gnomish ranger from the forests below Gadshadow, and two wizards, Drake, a dwarven evoker from Vasselheim’s House of Thunderbrand, and Allura, a human abjurist skilled in the creation of magical items. She was wary at their initial introduction but over the course of hunting down the goblins, and then the warlord that was inciting them, they had proved themselves able combatants and skilled adventurers.

They had trudged into Jorenn Villiage in the dead of the previous night and Kima had fallen asleep in her gambeson but by mid afternoon not even a real bed with sheets and pillows could compete with her empty stomach. Dohla was still snoring on her side of the bed but Allura was gone. Kima dressed and headed down for something to eat.

Allura was already at a table, her hair neatly brushed and braided. The plate in front of her was empty but her hands were wrapped around a steaming mug. She smiled when she saw Kima and scooted over to make room for her and her plate piled high with eggs and biscuits and bacon.

“I hoped I’d catch you before the others were up.” Allura reached into her bag and pulled out a small glass pendant on chain. “This is for you. It can save you from death one time.”

Kima eyed the wizard over her plate. Allura wasn’t as hardy as the rest of them, even Drake, whose dwarven ancestry made him tougher than his human counterpart. She had gone down several times in the course of their travels.

“You sure you don’t need it more?” 

“I . . . I want you to have it.”

There was a faint blush growing in Allura’s cheeks. It made Kima’s mouth go so dry she couldn’t even thank her as she slipped the chain over her head.

 

* * *

 

They had to carry Ghenn as his legs were too badly burned for him to walk at a normal speed, let alone make an expedient retreat into the mountains. Thordak’s followers were still patrolling and Dohla’s concealment spells were the only thing that saved them from being caught. Eventually they found a crevice in the stone face and, when Sirus investigated further, a small cave behind it. Allura cast an alarm on the entrance and Dohla hid it as best she could and they huddled in the dark because no one was interested in starting a fire. 

Sirus spoke first, a disembodied voice in the darkness, “We can’t kill him.”

“We have to try,” Drake responded.

“We did try!” There was a sharp crack, Sirus’s warhammer hitting the wall of the cave, Kima guessed. “He’s too strong. It cannot be done.”

“Then what do you suggest?” Drake demanded. “Spend the rest of our lives living in holes like these? I thought you bore blood of kings, not cowards!”

“And I thought your studies would have taught you some sense! If we face him again, there is nothing for us but death or bondage.”

“There’s only one Dragon I bow to,” Kima said and Ghenn sent a burst of frost into the air as he snorted his agreement, adding, “I’ll sooner die on my feet than live on my knees.”

“Exactly my point,” Sirus continued. “What would be the benefit of us dying for the sake of our pride? Who does that help? Death is only worthwhile when it means something! We cannot go charging in like fools because you’re angry his fire burns hotter than yours!”

“Stop!” Allura’s voice rang out. “Stop it! We’ve got enough on our hands without fighting each other as well!” She took a deep breath, the sound amplified by several echoes. “Ghenn is right, we can’t kill him. But that doesn’t mean we can’t stop him. We have to stop him.”

“What’re you thinking, Allie?” Kima asked.

“Let me think, let me think . . . Drake?”

“Aye?”

“Didn’t you read a paper a while back, about a group studying elemental binding?”

“Aye, at the Pansophical.”

“Let’s start there then.”

And months later, when it was finished and Thordak was sealed away, it was Allura’s mind and too many meaningful deaths that defeated him.

 

* * *

 

The meeting chambers of the Tal’Dorei Council made Kima’s skin crawl. Framed portraits and decorative vases on pedestals, velvet curtains trimmed with gold embroidery, plush chairs and couches that you weren’t actually supposed to sit on. Every fold of fabric, every piece of art, oozed a breakable luxury she wanted nothing to do with.

She had been directed to the last door on the left but she didn’t get there before the person she was looking for appeared in the hall in front of her.

“Kima.” In one sweeping glance, Allura’s eyes took in her travelling clothes and the pack slung over her shoulder. “So you’ve decided? You’re leaving?”

She nodded, tightening her grip on her pack. “The temple in Stillbend’s calling for reinforcements to clean up some pockets of resistance. Seems the Cinder Snake’s influence stretched further than we thought.”

“You haven’t had your fill of dragons?”

“That’s not fair,” Kima snapped. “I swore an oath and I won't turn away from it.”

“Of course. I’m sorry. I understand, I just wish . . . ” Allura’s hands twitched and Kima hoped for a moment she would reach for her, but then she clasped them together in front of her and cleared her throat. “I wish you the best.”

There were a lot of things Kima wished. She wished for more nights falling asleep to the sound of Allura’s breathing, and more days fighting and exploring and learning together. She wished that she could stay or that Allie could go or that things were somehow different. But as much as Kima did not fit here, Allura, with her intricate braids and her elegant robes, did and if she couldn’t have the other wishes, she at least wished she would be happy.

“Yeah, you too, Allie.”

As the doors closed behind her, she kicked one of the entrance pillars and felt the smallest flicker of satisfaction when it cracked.

 

* * *

 

When Vox Machina pushed into the room where Allura had been sequestered, Kima hung back. Her own minor healing abilities had closed the cut on Allura’s cheek but done nothing for the real problem. This was beyond her and she knew it, so she waited, trying to shut out the fearful whines that were her partner's only answer when Keyleth asked her what her name was.

“She’s been feebleminded,” the ashari said, though mostly to herself. Then she turned to Kima and she was nearly crushed by the weight of the attention. “Was it feeblemind?”

“I don’t—I don’t know what that is. I don’t—Can you help her?”

“Yes, yes.”

“Pike can—”

“It’s a restoration spell.”

Kima cleared out of the way so that the white-haired cleric could move forward. She watched as Pike’s hands and holy symbol started to glow but had to look away when Allura withdrew, shrinking away from the light. She couldn’t stand to see the woman she loved terrified of something she had dedicated so much of her life to.

Then Allie’s voice came clear and easy, “You’re a godsend, my dear.”

And suddenly Kima understood exactly what she had to lose and for the first time in her life she realized she could break.

 

* * *

 

Kima had experienced several brushes with death before but all of them would have been immediate. Alive one moment, gone the next, with no time to consider the situation or the events that led to it or would follow. In that respect, being dropped in the middle of an endless ocean was a completely different situation. It gave her entirely too much time to think about things.

For example, how ironic it was that her armor, the thing she wore for the specific purpose of keeping her alive, was the very thing that was going to kill her. She had tried a few times to get out of it, but any time she stopped swimming she started sinking and, even with Allura’s help, she hadn’t been able to take it off. Now it was nothing more than a slow death weighing her down.

She wasn’t entirely sure she wasn’t just imagining Vex’ahlia coming to their rescue until Allura answered her, “Oh. That’s the best thing I could hope to have seen.” She grasped Vex’s arm with one hand and Kima’s with the other and added, “Kima, hold on.”

It was slow going with the broom pulling all three of them and it was still difficult to keep her head above the surface. She sputtered, still fighting to keep the water out of her mouth as they inched back toward land. Allura was obviously exhausted, her breath labored and her head starting to list, but her fingers were like steel around Kima’s wrist.

“Keep holding,” Vex encouraged. “We’re almost there, darling.”

“I’m trying . . . ” she answered, her voice was strained. Another speck appeared on the horizon, someone flying Vox Machina’s carpet toward them. “We’re almost close enough. Now!”

Kima swore she saw a swirl of platinum wings in the blue magic that surrounded them and then they dropped onto the flying carpet, startling Percy.

“I’m so tired,” he said and even though she didn’t have the energy to agree, Kima’s grip on Allura’s hand never lessened.

 

* * *

 

The wedding was unplanned, unannounced, and absolutely perfect.  

Allura’s hair wasn’t braided. It hung loose around her face and fell in waves past her waist.

Kima wore her armor. Her Holy Avenger and Thunder Maul were strapped to her back and the only reason she wasn’t carrying her pack was that she left it in the pews before they started. 

Besides themselves and the spirit of Bahamut, there were only two others present, Simar, who performed the ceremony, and Drake, who was a weeping mess by the second word. Kima thought for a moment she saw figures in the back of the temple, two larger ones flanking one smaller, but then the light shifted and they vanished.

The vows were simple. There were few things to say that hadn’t been said before and nothing that wasn’t known. But when it came to her turn, Kima’s voice cracked and for a moment she worried she wouldn’t be able to get through them. Then she looked up at Allura, who was watching her with unwavering devotion, and the words came easily.

Kima had never loved fragile things. But nothing about Allura had ever been fragile.


End file.
